麻豆社

Some years ago I was travelling on a train with a group of fellow priests from the South of England. We were heading for a conference in York. As the train passed the beautiful and ancient Selby Abbey, one of my companions pointed to it and said with indignation, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 that doing up here?鈥� He obviously thought that there must have been a mistake, and a building, surely more at home in the south, had somehow been misplaced in the North.

My astonished reaction to him was similar to my reaction yesterday when I read the headlines about 鈥楾he great museum divide鈥� and the possible closure of one of our Northern museums. After all the North of England is fiercely proud of its heritage, expressed in fine civic and ecclesiastical buildings, but also expressed in well attended museums new and old.

The story originated in a statement by the Science Museum Group which warned that it is considering all options to balance the books ahead of this month鈥檚 comprehensive spending review. Well of course with the cut backs in their funding it鈥檚 obvious that some hard decisions have to be taken as part of wider cuts, but already there鈥檚 been a strong reaction in support of the National Railway Museum in York, the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry, and the Bradford Media Museum...